Acts 6
:13

Acts 6 :13
Translations

King James Version (KJV)

And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceases not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:

American King James Version (AKJV)

And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceases not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:

American Standard Version (ASV)

and set up false witnesses, who said, This man ceaseth not to speak words against this holy place, and the law:

Basic English Translation (BBE)

And they got false witnesses who said, This man is for ever saying things against this holy place and against the law:

Webster's Revision

And set up false witnesses, who said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:

World English Bible

and set up false witnesses who said, "This man never stops speaking blasphemous words against this holy place and the law.

English Revised Version (ERV)

and set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak words against this holy place, and the law:

Definitions for Acts 6
:13

Clarke's Commentary
on Acts 6 :13

Against this holy place - The temple, that it shall be destroyed.

And the law - That it cannot give life, nor save from death. It is very likely that they had heard him speak words to this amount, which were all as true as the spirit from which they proceeded; but they gave them a very false colouring, as we see in the succeeding verse.

Barnes' Commentary
on Acts 6 :13

And set up false witnesses - It has been made a question why these persons are called "false" witnesses, since it is supposed by many that they reported merely the "words" of Stephen. It may be replied that if they did report merely his "words"; if Stephen had actually said what they affirmed, yet they perverted his meaning. They accused him of "blasphemy"; that is, of calumnious and reproachful words against Moses and against God That Stephen had spoken in such a manner, or had designed to "reproach" Moses, there is no evidence. What was said in the mildest manner, and in the way of cool argument, might easily be perverted so as in "their view" to amount to blasphemy. But there is no evidence whatever that Stephen had ever used these words on any occasion, and it is altogether improbable that he ever did, for the following reasons:

(1) Jesus himself never affirmed that he would destroy that place. He uniformly taught that it would be done by the "Gentiles," Matthew 24. It is altogether improbable, therefore, that Stephen should declare any such thing.

(2) it is equally improbable that he taught that Jesus would abolish the special customs and rites of the Jews. It was long, and after much discussion, before the apostles themselves were convinced that they were to be changed, and when they were changed it was done gradually. See Acts 10:14, etc.; Acts 11:2, etc.; Acts 15:20; Acts 21:20, etc. The probability therefore is, that the whole testimony was "false," and was artfully invented to produce the utmost exasperation among the people, and yet was at the same time so plausible as to be easily believed. For on this point the Jews were particularly sensitive; and it is clear that they had some expectations that the Messiah would produce some such changes. Compare Matthew 26:61 with Daniel 9:26-27. The same charge was afterward brought against Paul, which he promptly denied. See Acts 25:8.